Friday, June 21, 2013

Britain makes last of secret UFO files public

LONDON
Newly declassified files from Britain's Ministry
of Defense shed further light on why the military shut down
its UFO desk nearly three years ago: despite a surge in reported
sightings, the expensive operation just had no defense benefit.The National Archives has been releasing declassified Ministry of
Defense files on UFOs for the past five years. The 10th and final
tranche released Friday covers the work carried out during the final two
years of the Ministry of Defense's UFO desk, from late 2007 to November
2009.

The 25 files detail reports of alien abductions, sightings,
offers to develop weapons to shoot UFOs out of the sky — and the reason
for the UFO desk's shutdown.

Among the documents — spread out over 4,400 pages — was a memo to then-Defense Minister Bob Ainsworth in November 2009, saying that the UFO operation was "consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defense output."

In
more than 50 years, no UFO sighting report "has ever revealed anything
to suggest an extraterrestrial presence or military threat to the U.K.,"
the memo said.

The records show that 2009 saw 600 UFO sightings
and reports — triple the number of the previous year and the largest
ever number of UFO sighting reports since 1978, the year "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was released in cinemas.

Whatever
the reason behind the surge — some files suggest the popularity of
releasing Chinese lanterns at weddings was behind it — the decision was
taken to close the desk.

"The level of resources diverted to this
task is increasing in response to a recent upsurge in reported
sightings, diverting staff from more valuable defense-related
activities," the documents said, with one saying the desk "merely
encourages the generation of correspondence."